Our View: Real progress in our schools

Standardized test scores were reported this week in North County
schools and across the state, and parents, principals, pupils and
pontificators have plenty of statistics to scrutinize. With 8,000
school districts in California and four to 12 grades in each
district, and last year's scores available for comparison, millions
of statistics can be manufactured to prove - just about
anything.

For North County, here are some significant results from the
scores of tests taken last year. Some of our observations will be
in the form of hypotheses or questions. In some cases, lower
numbers actually represent better news. In other cases, it's hard
to say what the numbers mean.

It's good news that about 82 percent of North County sophomores
passed the English and math portions of the high school exit exams.
That's about 7 percent higher than the statewide average. It's
particularly good news because these students - the class of 2006 -
are the first who will have to pass the exit exams by senior year
to graduate.

Oceanside Unified School District's two high schools provide an
example where slightly lower numbers actually bring more impressive
results. Oceanside High School sophomores scored just about at the
state average: 73 percent passed English and 76 passed math. But
last year, only 60 percent passed English and 38 percent passed
math. The improvement was just as marked at El Camino High School,
where pass rates for the English portion improved from 71 percent a
year ago to 81 percent this year, and the math score improved from
54 percent to 81 percent.

These are tremendous results in a district where one out of four
students is not fluent in English. Another gratifying result came
from Carlsbad Unified, where 95 percent of students who entered the
district as English language-learners passed the math exit exam and
98 percent passed English. (Statewide, the comparable passage rates
were 83 percent and 87 percent.)

Elementary scores from the state's Standardized Testing and
Reporting tests were reported this week as well. All California
students in grades two through 11 take the STAR tests - 4.7 million
of them last year.

About 58 percent of North County fourth-graders scored at or
above grade level in English and math - better results than the
county at large and the state average. The results for North
County's seventh-graders slipped somewhat: 54 percent were
proficient in reading and writing and slightly less than half were
proficient in math.

One could hypothesize that the state-mandated smaller classes in
kindergarten through third grades helped those classes' scores, and
that test scores tend to slide back once the smaller classes are
abandoned. In San Marcos Unified, for example, 58 percent of
fourth-graders are reading and writing at grade level and 60
percent are proficient in math. Of that district's seventh-graders,
only 42 percent are at grade level in English and 38 percent are
proficient in math.

It may be the case that smaller classes help. But in the San
Pasqual district, where 65 percent of fourth-graders were at grade
level or above in English, the number rose to 71 percent for
seventh graders. In Poway Unified, 72 percent of fourth-graders
were proficient in English and 71 percent were still at or above
grade level in seventh grade - not a statistically meaningful
difference. And statewide, only one grade showed lower scores than
last year - third grade, which falls under the class-size reduction
program.

So what, if anything, can we conclude? Standardized testing is a
blunt tool. It's more meaningful to look at a school's test scores
year after year, to see long-term trends, than it is to seize upon
a snapshot of one year and try to extract meaning from it. By most
of these measures, North County schools are doing well.

We conclude that we ought to be proud of our schools and proud
of our kids. That pride, in fact, may skew the results upward on
next year's standardized tests. So be it.